Buffalo Township Relief Assoc. clears up audit findings
The Buffalo Township Relief Association responded to the three findings of a compliance audit of the period of Jan. 1, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2022.
The findings made by the Pennsylvania Department of the auditor General included untimely deposits of state aid money, insufficient fidelity in its bond coverage and inadequate minutes of meetings and association bylaws. Aside from the three findings reported to the association, it complied with all other state laws “in all significant respects.”
The Buffalo Township Relief Association is an arm of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company, which serves Buffalo Township and Winfield Township.
Craig Cirrincione, treasurer of the Buffalo Township Relief Association, said Friday, Feb. 2, each transgression happened amid a transition period. He was taking the role as another administrator was leaving. He said the items addressed by the audit fell through the cracks, but have been tended to since.
“We resolved all of them within days of the audit,” Cirricione said.
He said a state check was supposed to be deposited within one calendar year of its receipt, but was deposited a few days late. He also said the insufficient bond coverage happened in the transition between former administrators and his own tenure.
According to the audit, the relief association did not maintain a Surety bond in a sufficient amount to cover the association’s authorized disbursing officer.
Firefighters’ relief associations are required by the Volunteer Firefighters’ Relief Aid Act to have a disbursing officer bonded for the maximum amount of cash assets held by the relief association to carry out financial actions on their association’s behalf.
The association’s bond coverage amount was $75,000, and by Dec. 31, 2022, the association’s assets totaled more than $81,000. The relief association also increased its bond to $120,000 on Sept. 8, 2023, according to the audit. The reason for the shortage cited by the audit was that the association’s officials were unaware of the bond coverage deficit.
“That day we made some calls and had our bond coverage up in a few days,” Cirricione said.
Cirricione also said the association was missing a few months of meeting minutes. The suggestion from the auditor general’s office on this point was for the association to improve its documentation of meeting minutes to show actions relating to financial actions taken by administrators.
As for meeting minutes, Cirricione said copies are now kept in multiple places by multiple people.
